Act I: The Day I Met Diablo

You see, one of us is a serious gamer, and one of us is definitely on the vanilla side of things. It keeps things interesting. Five points if you can guess who’s who.

Anyway.

I have to admit, I was a little nervous. I mean, I’m the type of person who plays Minecraft on “Peaceful” because creepers have the potential to give me a little fright. Was I ready to take on a game with such darkness and danger as Diablo III?

Maybe, but I suspected it was going to be a bumpy ride.

Who’s this now?

A glimpse into the dark epicness that is a demon hunter (post-half-hour).

Let me just say something here. If you, like me, have never played Diablo, take a fellow noob’s advice. Start with a demon hunter. You’ll be a weak little thing for about half an hour and then bam—before you know it, you’re the definition of OP.

Active: You will be a master of badassery.

Passive: You will thereafter be ruined for all other character builds.

Now, when I started playing, I chose my character entirely blindly, based on a bit of gut feeling and a lot of goofy realization that I really just wanted to be Robin Hood, skipping around the demon-infested woods and shooting arrows at baddies.

Things started to pick up for my character when I realized that she could learn to throw chakrams. Now, instead of being a regular forest bandit, I was a weird hybrid ninja Robin Hood with more pointy ninja stars than any goatmen or serpent people could stand.

Going hardcore (seasonal)

We managed to make it to just about the end of Act I in the game when the season started. At first, I was unconvinced. I mean, I had never even finished the story, and I’d started with my other character, and this and that and the other thing.

My argument dissipated almost instantly when I found out I could finish the story in the season, and get a powerful set to boot. Normal gameplay be damned, it was season time.

Of course, I hadn’t unlocked the full power of my demon hunter yet, and I was still mildly obsessed with my vision of a ninja star Robin Hood, so I made a new one, even though I had to suffer through another half-hour of utter uselessness. It was worth it.

Building a demon hunter

Confession: one of my favourite things in a game is having multiple ways to play it right. Diablo 3 is really good for that. There are all kinds of ways to build a character—and though the Internet told me that a grenade build is the best way to be OP, I had a different idea.

Here’s what I ended up creating:

Artemis, the chakram-throwing Robin Hood of my dreams, and her friend, the Bumble. He’s in it for the money.

Step 1: Bolas. There are a couple of things you could pick for a primary attack for this character, but I’m quite fond of this one because of the Thunder Ball rune. Makes it really easy to recover from Steps 2 and 3. And who doesn’t like free resources, amirite?

Step 2: Chakram. Of course. This one is fun because of the Twin Chakram rune. Double chakram, double damage. It works pretty darn well with a few other things she has equipped, too.

Step 3: Sentries. This is where this build really shines. Not only can the sentries last twice as long, do roughly 500% damage and fire chakrams when Artemis does; there can be five of them in play because of the weapon power from Bombardier’s Rucksack. Nnnnnice.

This is all because of the Embodiment of the Marauder set that she has on, and, to be entirely honest, it’s probably one of the most broken things in the game. Once I got the whole set as my season reward for finishing the first four chapters, Artemis’ bolas, chakrams, companions, and Vengeance all dealt 1,200% increased damage—for every active sentry.

That adds up real fast.

With a few other things, like legendary gems Moratorium and Mirinae, she can handle Torment VII—though I haven’t tried her on anything higher because let’s face it, it would really, really suck to lose my hardcore seasonal hero at this point.

So that’s my rant for today. Now, the question remains: what character should I create next?

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6 thoughts on “Act I: The Day I Met Diablo”

Hehe, I like to see new people getting into Diablo 3.
Just a quick tip, you can get a seasonal character that’s not hardcore so that you don’t worry about dying all the time.
Last season I had a monk but, because I started playing only about a week or so before the season ended, I only managed to get her up to Torment 11 and with the season set (the one you get from completing the seasonal quests).
That being said, I’ve always been a fan of the witch doctor, mostly because it was the first class I’ve played with in Diablo 3 and the demon hunter was the least appealing to me. Tried to play one about 2 seasons ago and didn’t enjoy it that much.
But now, NOW IT’S TIME FOR THE NECROMANCER.

Yeah! Actually I think I got lured into the hardcore season just because I was curious to see how far I’d get, I really didn’t expect to do the whole thing with one character.
The witch doctor looks really cool, I like the idea of having a little army that does all the work for me. I’ve seen it played and to be honest, the gargantuan is just about my favourite thing ever. Maybe that will have to be my next build!
I’m super excited to see how the necromancer is too, although I’m a little sad that it’s so expensive for a character…

Yep, that’s how the Witch Doctor works. You summon the army of satan and then sit back and relax, drink your tea.
Also, if you think about it, you don’t pay the €15 only for a character. You also get access to a new zone and a few other miscellaneous things. I’m a sucker for wings and pets. XDD

Actually, disregard that. Took a better look. Looks like they don’t mention anything about the new zone in the Necromancer pack. I don’t know why I was under the impression that they would include that.

I’m not 100% on this, but I think that’s usually what Blizzard has done in the past, right? So it’s a totally fair assumption. I see why it was so expensive for just the character and some aesthetic goodies now, though. Did you end up getting it?